Services
Foam roofing
Spray foam and coatings for flat roofs, recoated on a schedule so the system keeps doing its job.
The system
A foam roof is a system with a maintenance clock
Spray polyurethane foam is applied as a continuous layer with no seams, which is a real advantage on a low-slope roof where seams are usually where trouble starts. The foam itself is protected by a coating, and it is the coating — not the foam — that takes the ultraviolet punishment.
That is the thing worth understanding as an owner: a foam roof is not finished when it goes on. The coating is a wearing surface, and recoating on a sensible interval is what keeps the foam underneath intact. A foam roof that is inspected and recoated is a long-lived roof; one that is left alone until it fails is a tear-off.
Why it suits here
Why foam ended up owning Valley flat roofs
A low-slope roof does not shed water the way a pitched roof does; it holds it briefly and drains it. That makes every seam a place where trouble can start, and a conventional flat roof has a great many of them.
Spray foam has none. It goes down as a liquid and cures as one continuous surface, which means it also runs up and over the awkward parts — the parapet, the curb, the base of every pipe and unit — without a joint anywhere in it. On a Valley roof crowded with equipment and penetrations, that is the whole argument.
It is also light, and it adds insulation on top of a roof rather than only underneath it, which in a climate where the roof deck passes 150°F on a summer afternoon is doing real work. What it is not is maintenance-free, and that is the part that gets left out.
The clock
The coating is a wearing surface
Foam does not like ultraviolet light. Left bare it chalks, then degrades, and the layer doing the waterproofing starts going away. The coating on top exists to take that punishment instead, and it is consumed doing it.
So a foam roof has a recoat somewhere in its future, and the useful thing to know as an owner is that recoating on time is dramatically cheaper than the alternative. A foam roof that gets inspected and recoated before the coating is gone is a very long-lived roof — the foam underneath is not being consumed, only the sacrificial layer above it. One left until water is getting in is a tear-off, because by then the foam itself has taken the damage.
How long a coating lasts depends on how thick it went on, which direction the slope faces, how much foot traffic the roof takes and whether water sits on it. That is an inspection question rather than an interval anyone can quote you from a desk.
Drainage
Water that stands is the thing to watch
Ponding is the standard failure story on any flat roof and it is not really about the roof — it is about slope, drains and what has collected in them. Blowing dust after a monsoon packs into a low spot and into scuppers, and what drained last year does not this year.
Standing water works on a coating harder than anything else on the roof: it holds heat, holds grit against the surface, and stays long after the storm. A low spot that dries within a day or two after rain is ordinary; one still holding water most of the week is the thing to deal with.
One genuine advantage of foam here is that a low area can often be built up in foam to move water toward a drain, rather than the roof being rebuilt to correct the slope.
The inspection
What we look at
Coating condition and thickness, ponding and drainage, damage from foot traffic or from equipment set down on the roof, and the terminations and penetrations where any low-slope system is most likely to let go.
- Coating wear, chalking, and anywhere the foam is showing through
- Ponding, scuppers, drains, and dust packed into the low spots
- Punctures and crushed foam from foot traffic, ladders and dropped tools
- Terminations — parapets, edges, and where the system stops
- Penetrations, curbs and anything added to the roof after it went on
- Blisters, and any sign water has already got beneath the foam
Questions
The ones we get asked about this work
How often does a foam roof need recoating?
Can you walk on a foam roof?
My foam roof is leaking. Does the whole thing have to come off?
Is water sitting on my roof after a storm a problem?
Everything else we do
Request an inspection
Find out what your roof actually needs
Tell us where the roof is and what you are seeing. A licensed contractor walks it, photographs it, and shows you the findings. Free, and no obligation.